Bengaluru: Former chief minister and senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily has condemned MLA D K Shivakumar’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in connection with a money laundering case.

Insisting that Shivakumar has always co-operated with the investigation, Moily informed ANI that the Congress leader is being ‘persecuted’ and not ‘prosecuted’.

He said, “Declaring that they are arresting him because he is not co-operating is absolutely false and without any grounds. That reflects the political attitude of the present government at the Centre. They treated (former finance minister) P Chidambaram in a similar manner.”

“I think this seems to be the trend because ultimately, you can’t treat everybody like a criminal. It’s most unfortunate that D K Shivakumar has been persecuted actually, not prosecuted. They wanted to arrest him. He responded immediately when called. He really submitted to their jurisdiction for interrogation,” he added.

Shivakumar was arrested by ED officials on Tuesday, September 3 night, following which protests were staged by Congress party workers across the state as well as in New Delhi.